1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus used as a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus such as a batch type plasma processing apparatus or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Domestic Re-publication of PCT Patent Application WO2005/083766 discloses a substrate processing apparatus having a processing chamber in which at least one substrate is mounted, a gas supply system that supplies processing gas into the processing chamber, an exhaust system that exhausts atmospheric gas in the processing chamber and at least a pair of electrodes that are accommodated so as to be insertable into and removable from a protection tube so that the processing gas is set to an active state. In this substrate processing apparatus, each of the electrodes is mounted in the protection tube while at least a part thereof is bent, and the electrodes are formed of flexible members.
In the technique described above, the electrodes formed of the flexible members shrink in the protection tube due to heat or gravitational force, and the condition in the processing chamber such as a plasma distribution condition or the like is made inhomogeneous due to the shrinkage of the electrodes. Therefore, the above technique has a problem that the quality of processed substrates is inhomogeneous.